It is increasingly common for smart phones, laptops, and other devices to contain communications interfaces that are capable of interacting with wireless data services such as 3G, WiMAX, and Long Term Evolution networks. Proliferation of these devices has also lead to development of novel applications and usage patterns that leverages the “always on” nature of the wireless data networks. As these devices become more powerful and approach the capabilities of personal computers, it has become possible for data transmission techniques that were designed and refined for communication among networked computers to be applied to the increased ranges of the wireless communication realm.
Some of these data transmission protocols allow for negotiation of data transmission between a user equipment (e.g., a mobile phone) and a network node (e.g. a cellular tower or other network terminal in communication with the user equipment). Negotiated parameters may specify a data transmission allowance (e.g., time slices or frequency ranges) for certain data. Different transmission windows may be assigned for different types of data. For example, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard 25.321 specifies a networking protocol for communication on a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer that includes a first specified data transmission allowance for non-scheduled data (e.g., signaling data, voice data, etc.), and a second data transmission allowance for scheduled data (e.g., packet switched data). These data transmission allowances may be combined to determine a total data transmission allowance by aggregating one or more of the individual grants. For example, a non-scheduled grant may be provided when communication is established between the network node and the user equipment (e.g., when a radio bearer is established), and a scheduled grant may be dynamically updated based on the available resources of the network. The scheduled grant and non-scheduled grant may together determine the overall data transmission allowance.
The user equipment may select a size of a transmission data allocation based on the grants received from the network node. For example, the user equipment may select a transmission data allocation corresponding to the largest amount of data that still fits within the grants received from the network node. The user equipment may have a small amount of non-scheduled data to transmit, such that when the transmission data allocation is populated by scheduled data, the transmission data allocation contains extra bits. These extra bits may be replaced with “padding” bits that do not contain data, but are instead included to fill up the transmission data allocation. Transmission of these padding bits is inefficient, utilizing network resources and device power without transmitting any relevant data. In circumstances where smaller transmission data allocations are allocated by the network (e.g. due to limited uplink resources due to uplink congestion), a correspondingly larger portion of the transmission data allocation may be associated with a non-scheduled data allowance. As such, if the non-scheduled grant is not fully utilized, the unused portions of the transmission data allocation may be assigned to padding bits to ensure that the data allocation is of the size expected by the network node. The smaller the transmission data allocation, the larger portion of the data allocation occupied by the non-scheduled grant, and therefore the larger ratio of the full transmission data allocation that is associated with unused padding bits, therefore resulting in decreased efficiency.